Black+White Photography - UK (2019-12)

31

B+W



London 2

rinsing it with water – to me there’s much
more to it than just technique.’
During her time at the RCA Katja read
numerous books on early photographic
processes, including Vandyke brown
printing, cyanotypes, palladium and salt
printing. Looking back, you can see how her
approach as an artist has been shaped by
these influences. ‘First I taught myself
painting, then printmaking, and then
photography,’ she explains. Working in a
variety of mediums, Katja is quick to point
out that she has no preference. ‘I don’t have a
favourite technique,’ she says, ‘if I did it

would restrict my artistic approach.’

As a result, she switches between drawing,

etching, photography (often using

handmade cameras), and other mediums,

depending on the idea and desired result.

T

ime, transience, movement and

memory are all common themes

in Katja’s work. Her series Gotham

City, for example, features the artist

wearing a Batman mask as she roams the

streets of New York City. For this project she

used a plastic toy camera, shooting multiple-

exposures, so the distinction between city and

superhero becomes blurred. ‘The technique

calls to mind questions of multiple self-hood,

while the mask references the anonymity

granted by an urban environment,’ she

explains. (Gotham City was acquired by the

Saatchi Collection in 1998 – the same year

that Katja was nominated for the Deutsche

Börse Photography Foundation Prize.)

The series Winter Journey (2010) is equally

intriguing, comprising seven cyanotypes

made on etching paper, recording a journey

through a winter landscape of skeletal trees,

houses and empty fields. The compositions

are random, and yet there is a feeling the